Toasted Marshmallows (A Sweetly Novella)

1 | Water Balloons

My family was well-acquainted with Reyna's family because we've been friends for so long. My mom was close to Reyna's mom, and my dad got along with her too. Ian was a different story, but it wasn't his fault nor mine that my dad caught a glimpse of my dairy when I was twelve years old. I never left it open on my desk again after that little incident.

I could only be grateful that he didn't say anything to Ian about it or give him the same lecture he gave to me. It involved bats and wasps--the supposed less-friendly versions of birds and bees--and ended with the wasps being eaten. To this day, I didn't think he knew what he was talking about and I didn't either.

"No!" Meg cried. She had a crush on Ian. And Wesley. And any other remotely attractive guy who gave her attention. I pitied her for when she would get to learn all about bats and wasps. "Not Mr. Glitter's face!"

I laughed at my little sister's nickname for Ian, all because I told her about his sparkly vampire boxers as revenge for him sharing my awful nickname with her. Closing the door to the chaos inside, I took a breath of fresh air. The sun had only just risen and the air was still crisp from a cool night. I yawned, slinging my bag over my shoulder and dragged my feet to Ian's red truck at the end of the driveway.

When I climbed inside, I ordered, "You guys are buying my coffee. It is way too early for this mission, Skit. Unless you plan to freeze his ass off too."

"Don't talk about any man's ass in front of me, please. Especially one involved with my sister," Ian cringed from the driver's seat as he backed out onto the street.

"I could just talk about yours then," I said lightly. "Like how flat it is..."

He seemed to perk up when he asked, "You've been looking?"

"You just admitted that it's flat," I countered quickly instead of answering. Of course I was guilty of an occasional glance, because whether I liked him or not, I could still admire his assets.

Ian bristled, "It is not!"

"Pancakes."

"What?" He was confused like I changed the subject. "You want pancakes and coffee? I'm not made of money, you know."

I snorted, though Reyna outright laughed at him missing the comparison.

"Oh my dear, sweet brother," she shook her head and patted his shoulder. "You are so stupid."

"I don't get it. What did I miss?"

She and I started giggling together.

☁☀☁

Once we had our fill of caffeine and pancakes, we were all ready to set our plan into motion and parked down the street from Wesley's house.

His mom was in on it, so she gave us free reign of their water to fill the balloons and water guns which were all in the back of the truck. We carried everything to the side of the house, staying out of sight from his window in case he woke up.

It took us nearly a half an hour to fill all of the balloons and tie them. By the time we were done, there were four full buckets of ammunition and the water guns were fully loaded. Two guns and one bucket of balloons for each of us, including Wesley since it wouldn't be a fair fight if he didn't have any weapons.

The three of us took our positions behind the bushes near the front door. Reyna was on one side with her ammo, while Ian and I were crouched on the other side with ours. She gave us a thumbs up after calling his mom to tell her we were ready. His mom's role was to wake him up and send him out to the grocery store.

Then came the waiting.

"He better hurry," I grumbled with the mulch digging into my knees through the thin fabric. There would be splinters to deal with when we were done.